NPEA Student Dagger w/NPEA Marked Crossguard. Karl Burgsmüller in an arch above Berlin-Charlottenburg 5 Distributor Mark/TM. For detailed information on the NPEA organization and edged weapons refer to Waffenleite Presenting NPEA Daggers of the THIRD REICH by Ron Weinand. The unmarked aluminum crossguards show light surface wear/minor scratching, but no pitting or damage. The obverse lower crossguard is stamped, "N 317" indicating the dagger was the property of the NPEA school located at Naumburg and is pictured on page 101, lower of Collecting The Edged Weapons Of The Third Reich Vol VI. Naumburg is located approximately 45km southwest of Leipzig and the NPEA was the largest of all the NPEA schools. Medium-brown, fine-grained wooden grip shows minor surface wear with one surface hairline crack on reverse adjacent to lower crossguard, but no depressions, chips or nicks. The grip is devoid of any insignia as is proper for the student-pattern NPEA dagger. Mirror polished blade grades EX++ with minor runner marks and a small surface nick to the lower right cutting edge, but no shadowing, pitting or damage to the tip. Crisp, deeply-etched motto, "Mehr sein als scheinen." (Be More Than You Appear to Be) displays the correct standard "s" in the second and fourth word as illustrated on page 18 of the above reference. The inscription features dark background frosting with contrasting open space to the left of each letter, and the blade is complete with portions of the original rust/brown felt buffer pad as used by the Burgsmüller firm. The steel scabbard retains approximately 80% of the original "blued' finish showing uniform wear to the shell with one small depression to the lower obverse, and wear to the edges where frog rubbed against finish. The scabbard features the Burgsmüller pattern frog lug with two incised horizontal lines on the lug. The scabbard throat shows wear to the bluing and is secured by to dome-head screws. NOTE: The internal scabbard has been inspected to insure there are no internal depressions indicating that an SA/SA scabbard has been substituted by filling the lower fitting attaching screw holes. A photocopy file of information on the Naumburg NPEA school and maps showing the location as well as a photocopy of the above referenced photograph are included with the dagger. EX+ (26170) $3,750.